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4.3 KiB
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31 lines
4.3 KiB
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>xyzzy</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../X.html" title="X"/><link rel="previous" href="XXX.html" title="XXX"/><link rel="next" href="../Y.html" title="Y"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">xyzzy</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="XXX.html">Prev</a><EFBFBD></td><th width="60%" align="center">X</th><td width="20%" align="right"><EFBFBD><a accesskey="n" href="../Y.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="xyzzy"/><dt xmlns="" id="xyzzy"><b>xyzzy</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="pronunciation">/X<>Y<EFBFBD>Z<EFBFBD>Z<EFBFBD>Y/</span>, <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="pronunciation">/X<>Y<EFBFBD>ziz<69>ee/</span>, <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="pronunciation">/ziz<69>ee/</span>, <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="pronunciation">/ik<69>ziz<69>ee/</span>, <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">adj.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> [from the ADVENT game] The <a href="../C/canonical.html"><i class="glossterm">canonical</i></a>
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‘magic word’. This comes from <a href="../A/ADVENT.html"><i class="glossterm">ADVENT</i></a>,
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in which the idea is to explore an underground cave with many rooms and to
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collect the treasures you find there. If you type <span class="firstterm">xyzzy</span> at the appropriate time, you can move
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instantly between two otherwise distant points. If, therefore, you
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encounter some bit of <a href="../M/magic.html"><i class="glossterm">magic</i></a>, you might remark on
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this quite succinctly by saying simply “<span class="quote">Xyzzy!</span>”
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“<span class="quote">Ordinarily you can't look at someone else's screen if he has
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protected it, but if you type quadruple-bucky-clear the system will let you
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do it anyway.</span>” “<span class="quote">Xyzzy!</span>” It's traditional for xyzzy to
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be an <a href="../E/Easter-egg.html"><i class="glossterm">Easter egg</i></a> in games with text
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interfaces.</p><p>Xyzzy has actually been implemented as an undocumented no-op command
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on several OSes; in Data General's AOS/VS, for example, it would typically
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respond “<span class="quote">Nothing happens</span>”, just as
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<a href="../A/ADVENT.html"><i class="glossterm">ADVENT</i></a> did if the magic was invoked at the wrong
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spot or before a player had performed the action that enabled the word. In
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more recent 32-bit versions, by the way, AOS/VS responds “<span class="quote">Twice as
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much happens</span>”.</p><p>Early versions of the popular ‘minesweeper’ game under
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Microsoft Windows had a cheat mode triggered by the command
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‘xyzzy<enter><right-shift>’ that turns the top-left
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pixel of the screen different colors depending on whether or not the cursor
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is over a bomb. This feature temporarily disappeared in Windows 98, but
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reappeared in Windows 2000.</p><p>The following passage from <i class="citetitle">The Wonderful Wizard of
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Oz</i> by L. Frank Baum, suggesting a possible pre-ADVENT origin,
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has recently come to light: “<span class="quote">Ziz-zy, zuz-zy, zik!</span>” said
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Dorothy, who was now standing on both feet. This ended the saying of the
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charm, and they heard a great chattering and flapping of wings, as the band
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of Winged Monkeys flew up to them.</p><p>The text can be viewed at <a href=" ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext93/wizoz10.txt" target="_top">
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Project Gutenberg</a>.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="XXX.html">Prev</a><EFBFBD></td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../X.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"><EFBFBD><a accesskey="n" href="../Y.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">XXX<EFBFBD></td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"><EFBFBD>Y</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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